JOEL'S OPINION
Juno was the first FREE e-mail service I ever used. As a matter of fact, my brother still has an active Juno account and used it not too long ago when he couldn't get to a computer with Internet access.

Back in 1996, Juno was the first company that came around offering free e-mail. The only drawback at the time was that you couldn't really send attachments. Well, you weren't supposed to, anyway. It wasn't too long after we started using it that Rob figured out a way to send attachments; however the file sizes of the attachments were limited.

Juno has an aggressive growth strategy planned. Not only is the company now offering FREE Internet access but it's also offering 150 hours a month for $9.95 and is soon going to be launching Juno Express, a service that provides high-speed Internet access.

My guess is that Juno is preparing to get as many subscribers as possible now, in hopes of converting them over to the Juno Express high-speed offering as soon as it's available. This is an excellent strategy.

The only thing that surprises me is how long it has taken Juno to finally start offering FREE ad-supported Internet access. After all, the infrastructure has been there for it for a long time and it already had the contacts for advertising.

Do you Juno? What do you think of Juno's plans? Talk to us in our Message Parlor.